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Chrome Web Store payments deprecation

developer.chrome.com

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Re: Chrome Web Store payments deprecation

#31

Post by duskwuff »

Analemma_ wrote: post #11
mrkramer wrote: post #7

Who says Google is destroying competition, they encourage competition by closing down their own stuff people love and use.

That is destroying competition though. What Google does is enter a market which previously had a healthy economy of paid software, snuff out all the other players with a free version, and then abandon the space when they get bored. And the old economy can never come back, because there's hysteresis involved in the relative costs of starting from scratch versus keeping a functioning ecosystem alive, and because users…

What "healthy economy of paid software" previously existed here? The only other site for browser extensions I'm aware of which predated the Chrome Web Store was addons.mozilla.org, and that never supported paid extensions at all.

Re: Chrome Web Store payments deprecation

#32

Post by _qulr »

stickfigure wrote: post #26

The interesting thing here is that a commercial marketplace for browser extensions failed. That seems surprising - surely a marketplace for extensions to the most popular browser on the planet could bring in some revenue?! Is it just that nobody paid for things? Presumably they're going to keep running the chrome web store, so isn't a cut of paymens "free money" to them? Is there some big cost to this I'm not seeing,…

> Is it just that nobody paid for things?

Correct. Most people expect Chrome extensions for free.

Re: Chrome Web Store payments deprecation

#33

Post by wrinkl3 »

stickfigure wrote: post #26

The interesting thing here is that a commercial marketplace for browser extensions failed. That seems surprising - surely a marketplace for extensions to the most popular browser on the planet could bring in some revenue?! Is it just that nobody paid for things? Presumably they're going to keep running the chrome web store, so isn't a cut of paymens "free money" to them? Is there some big cost to this I'm not seeing,…

> That seems surprising - surely a marketplace for extensions to the most popular browser on the planet could bring in some revenue?!

I bought into the browser extensions heavily when they first became a thing - I was in high-school and would take pride in beefing up my browser with as many utilities as humanly possible. Once the novelty wore off it became apparent that I was using only a couple of them passively, and had absolutely zero need for the rest. Extensions seem neat in theory, but they're mainly useful from removing annoying/harmful behaviour from websites, and monetizing those cases is tricky. People would probably pay for Adblockers, but there's no need.

Re: Chrome Web Store payments deprecation

#35

Post by michaelkaufman »

dewitt wrote: post #16
Gehinnn wrote: post #2

This sucks. I paid $25 for my play console account to monetize my extension two days ago - just to find out they deprecate web store payments entirely.

I have no connection to any of the teams involved, but if you have problems getting this resolved, please send me a mail (my HN name @google.com) and I'll make it right.

Hi, I'm in the same boat. Do you mind if I write you too please? Thanks.

Re: Chrome Web Store payments deprecation

#36

Post by FriendlyNormie »

dewitt wrote: post #16
Gehinnn wrote: post #2

This sucks. I paid $25 for my play console account to monetize my extension two days ago - just to find out they deprecate web store payments entirely.

I have no connection to any of the teams involved, but if you have problems getting this resolved, please send me a mail (my HN name @google.com) and I'll make it right.

No post body was provided.

Re: Chrome Web Store payments deprecation

#37

Post by dewitt »

michaelkaufman wrote: post #35
dewitt wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have no connection to any of the teams involved, but if you have problems getting this resolved, please send me a mail (my HN name @google.com) and I'll make it right.

Hi, I'm in the same boat. Do you mind if I write you too please? Thanks.

Sure thing. Same address.

And if it turns out that there's a pattern of a _lot_ of developers who all recently signed up for first-time Google Play Developer accounts just to monetize Chrome apps, I'd be maybe a little surprised, but more than happy to have helped identify an unexpected trend.

Re: Chrome Web Store payments deprecation

#38

Post by simon_weber »

dewitt wrote: post #37
michaelkaufman wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hi, I'm in the same boat. Do you mind if I write you too please? Thanks.

Sure thing. Same address. And if it turns out that there's a pattern of a _lot_ of developers who all recently signed up for first-time Google Play Developer accounts just to monetize Chrome apps, I'd be maybe a little surprised, but more than happy to have helped identify an unexpected trend.

If I'm understanding the timeline correctly, it's not just recent signups but anybody who has wanted to monetize an extension from March until now, who paid under the expectation that the temporary ban would be lifted.

Re: Chrome Web Store payments deprecation

#39

Post by dewitt »

simon_weber wrote: post #38
dewitt wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure thing. Same address. And if it turns out that there's a pattern of a _lot_ of developers who all recently signed up for first-time Google Play Developer accounts just to monetize Chrome apps, I'd be maybe a little surprised, but more than happy to have helped identify an unexpected trend.

If I'm understanding the timeline correctly, it's not just recent signups but anybody who has wanted to monetize an extension from March until now, who paid under the expectation that the temporary ban would be lifted.

Thanks! Mostly I just hated to think that a developer might fall into protracted customer support discussion asking for their account to be refunded, if the $25 turns out to be a hardship. I wouldn't expect this to impact many people, but you never know.

I'd also be curious what happens if people ask the normal channels for the refund, of course.

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